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China’s embassy in Ottawa is criticizing a trip to Taiwan by Canadian MP Michael Chong, who said his visit is partly to “assert Canadian sovereignty” after China’s ambassador warned against future visits by parliamentarians.
“Canada is a sovereign and independent country,” Chong said in a statement Sunday, the day he arrived in Taipei. “We do not take direction from a foreign government about where Canadian MPs can travel internationally, and where Canadian Navy warships can transit in international waters.”
Chong was referencing a warning made by China’s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, during an interview with The Globe and Mail last month.
Wang warned the strategic partnership announced after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping would be damaged if Canada sends any more warships through the Taiwan Strait or if any more MPs visit Taiwan.
He also did not appear to distinguish between parties, saying no MPs should be allowed to visit. Chong is the Conservative Foreign Affairs critic.
The Chinese embassy said such a visit sends “a wrong message of support for ‘Taiwan independence.’”
“Certain Canadian MP’s visit to the Taiwan region and his meetings with officials of the Taiwan region authorities gravely contravene the one-China commitment Canada upholds and send a wrong message of support for Taiwan independence. China firmly opposes this,” the embassy wrote in a statement to Global News.
China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180-kilometre-wide waterway dividing the two sides.
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Canada, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but the two maintain de facto embassies in each other’s capitals.
Carney announced a preliminary deal with China in January on electric vehicles and canola, the partnership Wang appeared to be referencing in his remarks.
Michael Kovrig, a senior advisor with the International Crisis Group, told Global News that China, by issuing the warning, is trying to “assert” itself and “trying to move the red lines.”
“The ambassador is trying to say that you can’t keep doing what you’ve been doing before and if you do, we will be angry with you,” he said. But Kovrig added Chong is also asserting his own stance.
“Michael Chong is also asserting that no, he does not represent the government of Canada, and he has full authority to go and visit Taiwan and meet with whoever he pleases and it’s not up to the Chinese government,” Kovrig said.
Chong, who serves as the Conservatives’ foreign affairs critic, plans to visit with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te while he’s there.
Taiwan remains a contentious issue between China and multiple countries, including Canada, the United States and many parts of Europe.
The issue arose this past week when Xi visited the U.S. and met with President Donald Trump, which saw the Chinese leader warn Trump that the two countries could clash over the self-governed island if it’s not handled properly.
Trump’s administration has approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, but has yet to begin fulfilling it.
The U.S. has a longstanding commitment to help the island defend itself if attacked, but Trump has shown greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, fueling speculation about whether the president could be persuaded to dial back American support.
Lai said on Sunday that the arms purchases from the U.S. are “the most important deterrent.”
“We thank President Trump for his continued support for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait since his first term, including the continuous increase in the scale and amount of arms sales to Taiwan,” he said.
The self-governed island and the one-China “principle” is considered to be the “political foundation of and an inviolable red line” for relations between Canada and China, the embassy said in its statement.
Chong stressed in his statement the need to opposed the warning.
“To remain silent and comply in the face of intimidation is to accommodate this behaviour, further embolden authoritarianism, and further weaken democracy,” said Chong. “It is not simply sufficient to proclaim sovereignty; sovereignty must be exercised.”
—with files from Global News’ Nathaniel Dove, The Associated Press and Reuters
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